Fact-Checking Fortune Magazine — A Defense of Pabst

So I’m reading this column on the auto industry by a senior editor at Fortune magazine named Alex Taylor III. The author is attempting to explain the woes of the auto industry and concludes that one problem is stale branding.

Despite the best efforts, old brands eventually lose their luster, which explains why we’re not drinking as much Pabst Blue Ribbon beer or Vat 69 scotch as we used to. Marketing vehicles with names like Buick, Pontiac, Lincoln, Mercury, Dodge, and Chrysler is a real challenge that all the savvy and spending in the world isn’t going to solve.

It is possible that Alex Taylor III is not drinking as much Pabst Blue Ribbon beer as he/she used to. But it’s flat-out wrong to claim that “we” are not. According to an article in Cheers magazine, Pabst is one of a handful of beers brands to qualify as an “Established Growth Brand.” (Yes, Cheers is real publication that covers the food and beverage industry.) “Established Growth Brand” includes beer that have posted “moderate or substantial growth in the past four years whose volume exceeds three million cases.” Pabst sold 19.1 million cases in 2006, growth of nearly 6 percent.

What does this have to do with the Green Bay Packers? Not much. But we’re trying to get Pabst Blue Ribbon — America’s Beer — to be our first corporate sponsor and I thought a little truth-squadding of a major business publication couldn’t hurt.

UPDATE: Here is the email I sent to Pabst. We’ll let you know what we hear.

I just posted this on our website, which features, among other things, lots of commentary about our love
for Pabst.